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tips.gg/CS2 (CS:GO) News/ESL Pro League: Round of 12

ESL Pro League: Round of 12

07.04.2022, 05:30

The Playoffs have started and 8 teams have fought amongst themselves to eliminate 4 of these teams. The four that progressed will now play against the Group toppers, and we sure have some delicious matches lined up next.

Season 15Germany, Düsseldorf, Merkur Spiel-Arena
$823,000Prize Pool
24Teams
PremierTier
FaZe Clan
Winner
ENCE
2nd Place
Ninjas in Pyjamas
3rd Place

There is no break here. Movistar Riders vs ENCE will begin in a few hours, followed up by NiP vs Liquid.

An exciting Astralis vs FURIA precedes the most awaited matchup in quite a while now: NaVi vs FaZe Clan.

Without further delay, let’s get into the four Round of 12 matches played in the past two days!

FaZe vs Players (Gambit)

13:02Finished05.04.2022
2FaZe ClanEurope
1Playersrussia (terrorist state)

FaZe vs Gambit is the classic Playoffs matchup at this point. It was the Quarterfinals in Colgne and in IEM Katowice, and now it was the Round of 12 in Pro League. For as strong as Gambit have been for more than a year, what a shame that FaZe Clan have eliminated them from 3 of the most elite CS:GO tournaments.

A true Kryptonite.

I talked in my Group B article about FaZe’s weak defense when they started the Group. But they had fixed it by the end of the group, something that helped them avoid an embarrassing early exit.

Well, the match started with both the teams winning their own map picks. FaZe won the T-sided first half of Inferno 11-4. They followed it up by a clean 5-0 defensive half to take the lead in the match. ropz and broky put in stunning numbers to secure a 16-4 win.

The next map was Gambit’s pick, and they returned the favour on Mirage. They won the first half 10-5 against a shaky FaZe defense and copied FaZe from the first map by winning the second half cleanly, 6-0. The veteran in HObbit shocked FaZe by posting a 118 ADR, 1.90 rating performance. That, and sh1ro and Ax1Le’s support rattled FaZe Clan, and they had to leave everything for the third map.

The decider map was Overpass, and the first half was finally a close brawl: 8-7 to Gambit. FaZe seemingly used all their defense points in this half itself. They won it 9-1, and Gambit suffered a third consecutive loss to FaZe Clan. It was ropz again with a heroic performance, and everyone, even karrigan, stepped up equally.

It was a perfect team performance, and even the most promising team of tomorrow couldn’t stand up to them.

Will this FaZe Clan show up in the Quarterfinals, though? For the team eagerly waiting for them is none other than Natus Vincere.

NaVi must surely be mad that FaZe Clan “stole” a Katowice crown that NaVi think they deserve. Will that rage flow through the server? Will NaVi defeat FaZe Clan, or will the international roster put another CIS team to bed and move on to a relatively easy Semifinal?

Only time can tell.

Heroic vs Team Liquid

14:17Finished06.04.2022
0HeroicEurope
2Team LiquidNorth America

This was a peculiar matchup. Heroic (refrezh, that is) had upset Liquid by eliminating them from the last season’s ESL Pro League, thanks to that insane 1v5. This time, it was time for a revenge for Liquid, perhaps. I did not expect Liquid to win, though. A strong fight was the best I thought was possible.

But that notion quickly disappeared, even before the guns starting shooting. The map pool of this match was so… unique?

Liquid picked Ancient. Heroic picked Vertigo. Overpass was left over. When was the last time you saw a pool like that? I knew we were in for something special.

Ancient started with a constant exchange of rounds. Eventually, Liquid were able to pull 4 in a row, but Heroic responded by winning 5 in a row to close the first half 9-6 in their favour.

I don’t exactly know what happened, but Liquid won the second half 10-0 on their CT side to win Ancient 16-9. I mean, Ancient sure is a CT sided map… but 10-0? Wow.

The NA team continued this hot defensive streak in their second map, winning it 11-4. That’s 21/25 CT side rounds won! It sure was a disaster. Heroic were losing players while trying to get even some basic map control.

Heroic tried to mount a comeback, winning 5 in a row to start the second half. But Liquid’s elite movement and dynamic Vertigo strats managed to take the game in control and close it out 16-10.

oSee was the deserved MVP, and EliGE must surely feel like oSee was his long lost brother. shox was equally important and refreshing to watch.

The next match for Liquid is against consistency. This victory against Heroic ushers a red carpet for Liquid to the Grand Finals. Why? Because their next opponent is NiP and the Semifinal opponent is one of Movistar Riders and ENCE.

Had Heroic won this match, I would’ve quickly predicted a NaVi vs Heroic Grand Final matchup. But it’s Liquid now, so I’m not 100% sure. They have the quality and the brains. All they need is to win against themselves.

NA UP? (Kinda embarrassing after I bashed them in my previous article, right? My point still stands, though; they were quite mediocre in the Group Stage.)

Astralis vs Entropiq

09:33Finished06.04.2022
1EntropiqEurope
2AstralisDenmark

Astralis knew that Entropiq wouldn’t be a pushover. The CIS side have looked good and strong every time I cover them. This match was no different. Astralis did win it but the match went to the 30th round of the third map.

The first map was Astralis’ Nuke. Through a combination of wobbly attacks and failed conversions, Entropiq took a 12-7 lead on their T side. But as the full buys came in, Astralis finally took control of the match. They won 8 in a row to reach map point, and despite last ditch attempts from Entropiq, Astralis did close it out, 16-14.

blameF had underperformed here, but that was soon about to change.

The second map was Vertigo, and the first half was an even 8-7 split, favouring Astralis’ CT side. Astralis followed that up by winning the pistol and converting the next to make it 10-7. But the lack of ideas caught up to them in gun rounds, as they threw away the lead and fell down to a 11-15 deficit. I certainly did not expect Astralis to win four in a row, especially on their T side… but they did.

Astralis had recovered and set up an overtime brawl. It was not a brawl, it was a knockout punch from Entropiq. Astralis lost the overtime 0-4, three of the four being T sided of course, and the match had gone to the third map.

blameF had already found his carryF groove by this point, getting 36 kills on Vertigo.

The final map was Overpass. It was kinda a similar story to Vertigo. Astralis took a CT sided lead in the first half and won the pistol and the following to get a comfortable 12-5 lead. But their T sides were again quite lifeless, as they managed to throw that humungous lead away to get into a 13-14 deficit.

But again, they pulled themselves back up at the very last moment and won the next three to avoid an embarassing exit to Entropiq. blameF dropped a 30 bomb, by the way. None of the other 9 were even close, Entropiq’s best being 20. So it is indeed quite surprising that Astralis let it go the distance.

They face FURIA next, and I’m not really sure who’s the favourite here. FURIA’s attack is generally their stronger arm, but Astralis’ defense is strong as well. If Astralis let this equalise, it may tip the scales in FURIA’s favour, since I’m not really sure if Astralis can effectively break down the Brazilian defense.

If Astralis is to win against FURIA, they’ll meet one of NaVi and FaZe in the Semifinals, teams that can both shut down the Danes with ease.

So it’s better for Astralis to spend all their special points against FURIA to ensure a place as deep as possible.

ENCE vs Fnatic

09:32Finished05.04.2022
0fnaticEurope
2ENCEEurope

This match, on paper, seems like a “skippable” one. But trust me, it was seriously great and it was fun to watch.

The match started on fnatic’s pick of Overpass. They won the pistol round, but failed to convert the followings, and slumped into a 9-2 deficit. They ended the first half 11-4 down. ENCE and co. continued their form into the second half, and won the map 16-5. Spinx was absolutely phenomenal, posting a 2.0 rating. How could you even dream of winning when someone’s having such a day.

The next map was ENCE’s pick of Nuke. fnatic returned the ghastly favor of the first map initially. Initially? Well, fnatic lost the pistol and the following two. After that, they went on a shocking 11-0 CT-sided run, to make it 11-3. ENCE won the last round, and the first half ended 11-4 again.

If that wasn’t entertaining enough, ENCE then put in their own mind-numbing streak; they won 12 of the next 13 rounds to activate zonic’s law.

ENCE had made the crazy comeback from 11-3 down, and all fnatic could do was shake their heads in disgust and leave for Britain.

With that, ENCE had set up a date match with the coveted 5-0er of the Group Stage. Thankfully for them, it’s Movistar Riders and not Natus Vincere.

Ah, the section where I make some stupid predictions. It’s fun, though. I expect a tight Liquid vs NiP, but NA CS will reign supreme. I don’t follow Movistar or ENCE much, so I don’t really know who’ll win. I created a lot of hype in the Group B article about ENCE, though, so I’ll be rooting for them.

Sorry, Spain. ENCE will Ride the Movi-ng dish out of your Spanish Stars. Hopefully.

Astralis vs FURIA is another equally placed battle, and I would’ve picked FURIA had it not been for carryF’s red hot form. If he keeps that pace going, Astralis might even defeat NaVi. Oops, I leaked my NaVi vs FaZe prediction, didn’t I?

History repeats itself. In Cologne, FaZe defeated Gambit and denied a potential CIS Semifinal tussle. NaVi punished this by 2-0ing FaZe. Here, it might be a 2-1, but it will surely be an easy and s1mple win for NaVi.

Amidst this sea of uncertainty, though, there’s one thing that’s certain: we’re gonna have a lot of fun, for sure.

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